Cell phones used to stalk, harass victims

'By the nature of the criminal mind, they can turn around the same software used to monitor a 12-year-old child or a lost phone, and pervert it to stalk another person'

Karen Botakaren.bota@sentinel-standard.com

Advances in cell phone technology, such as global positioning programming, can help parents monitor their children’s whereabouts for their safety, and phone owners recover lost phones. Unfortunately, smartphone technology, both GPS and other spyware, also has become a tool for abusers to keep tabs on their victims.

“By the nature of the criminal mind, they can turn around the same software used to monitor a 12-year-old child or a lost phone, and pervert it to stalk another person,” said Ionia County Sheriff’s Office Detective Phillip Hesche. “It’s happening more and more – another’s extension of control, power, having an influence over someone's life, knowing where they are every minute at the touch of a button.”

Software can be purchased and placed on someone else’s phone, which uses the geotagging feature of the phone, Hesche said. The software, or virus, then can get data from the phone to get a rough idea of the phone’s positioning by mapping its position to cell phone towers.

“The phone takes coordinates, and then reports back to a third party,” Hesche said. “There will be periodic transmissions of the data the virus is collecting. It picks a time every day, and then comes active.”

Some of the signs that a phone may have had software or a virus installed are: the battery, particularly a new one, gets depleted quickly; the phone is hot to the touch when it is not in use; or the screen suddenly “wakes up” when the phone is not in use.

Hesche said that, while hacking a phone or computer is a possibility, placing software or a virus on a cell phone would more likely be done by a person gaining someone’s trust to give them access to the computer or cell phone.

“In a domestic violence relationship, the abuser doesn't like the victim to have privacy from them,” he said. “The hardest part is to let go of that control and power.”

“We’ve had experiences where an individual cell phone GPS locator was used to find out where a person has been, or they’ve been threatened: ‘If you leave me, I’ll be able to know where you are,” said Erin Roberts, executive director of Relief After Violent Encounter, Inc. (RAVE).

A cell phone’s texting capability also can cause problems for people struggling to make a decision to leave an abusive relationship, Roberts said.

“Texting takes some of the severity out of the situation, when an individual is receiving messages from the perpetrator and it’s a constant source of someone saying ‘I’m sorry, I won’t do it anymore,’ trying to re-engage somebody,” she said.

Texting is not personal conversation, and without the personal exchange, the victims don’t have to hear the perpetrator’s voice, triggering some of the memories of the more difficult parts of the relationship, Roberts said.

“It’s words on a screen. That way, it can make that person think, ‘Maybe it wasn’t as bad,’” she said. “Texting can be used in a very structured way for the perpetrator to get back into a relationship or to convince someone to stay.”

Owning a spyware program like this technically may be legal, “but as soon as it is used to access someone else's data that you don’t have permission to access, at that point you're hacking,” Hesche said. “Anytime you access a person’s information, whether it is a computer or a phone, without consent, you’re breaking privacy and telecommunications laws.”

RAVE has some cell phones for its clients that can be used while they are trying to get away from their partner and prevent that person from contacting them.

“I would tell them to turn off the phone and try to find an alternate way,” Roberts said. “Some cell phone companies have services that can help, and they will change the phone number. Or they will remove the program if it can be removed.”

Hesche said the best way to protect a phone from being hacked is to always know where the phone is, and keep a phone’s software and firmware up to date. If worse comes to worse, a victim can take their phone in to their cell phone service provider and have the phone erased.

“If someone suspects this is going on, if they suspect they’re being stalked or their phone has been hacked, contact the sheriff’s office,” he said. “Phones are miniature computers that also can send and receive phone calls. It's a good thing – and it could be used for a bad thing.”